The Journal: Undocumented
by Nocturnal Lane
Summary: This journal is dedicated to the memories soon to be erased by time. First Book of The Journal Trilogy. Eventual Naru/Mai
1. The First Entry

**Author's Note:**

Hi Folks! It's me again, Nocturnal Lane, back with an awesome (or maybe not-so-awesome) brand-new, fresh-from-the-oven (even though I've been rewriting the draft for years now) fan fiction from one of our most beloved light novel/manga/anime _Ghost Hunt! _

The prologue's a test-drive; I would like to know how the response will be then probably publish a few more chapters.

To readers of my other stories: I will soon (this weekend, maybe) update my drabble collections. One of them is soon coming to an end, so be prepared!

Now, let's get started!

**Disclaimer: I do not own ****_Ghost Hunt_**

* * *

**First Entry: Prologue**

I received this notebook from Naru several weeks ago—for a work-related purpose, of course. I was ordered to write down the…well...I suppose they could be called "postcognitive dreams" which I tend to experience during a case Apparently, he was utterly convinced that the reason I scarcely shared my dreams with the others was my low brain capacity to store information.

What a jerk.

As you can see, the book is not serving its purpose well; now it is more of a diary than a serious, boring case journal (which is probably some sort of useless, yet satisfying, revenge to cease my mental arguments). I have previously scribbled and will continue to write notes about our past cases based solely on memory. That would teach that narcissistic slave-driver to not underestimate Taniyama Mai.

…Then again, if he ever read the things I wrote about him, I probably would lose my job.

You must know about plenty of our journeys by now, so you think that my retelling the stories won't make it any more interesting. You're wrong. Not only because I am, in fact, a fantastic storyteller who can spruce up things the way you readers like it, but because I am not going to repeat them.

Readers, welcome to _The Journal: Undocumented_.

-_Taniyama Mai, The Journal's Mid-Opening  
__xx-xx-xxxx_


	2. The Second Entry

**Author's Note:**

I'm so happy that a few of you have shown interest in the opening! And yes, I will of course make the _real_ chapters longer. Thank you for those of you who reviewed; you people made my day *grin*

Most of the quotes are taken from the anime rather than the manga, as were some scenes, and most of this are just interpretations I made while watching the anime over and over again. I hope you enjoy the second entry!

*UPDATE: A glitch deleted this chapter after I posted it the first time; I took it as a sign that I should have edited this chapter more before I posted it… Now it's done :D

**WARNING: CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS (This warning is valid for all chapters. Just to be safe).**

**Disclaimer: I do not own _Ghost Hunt _**

* * *

**Second Entry: One Fine Morning**

Despite of all my fancy talk, or, well, _writing_, in this case (I guess I should work on my punctuation), I think it is best to start form the very beginning. I know, I know; this chapter would perhaps be quite boring to some of you, and you are welcome to skip it, but in doing so you will risk not knowing about some essential information.

…Maybe they're not _that _important, but it won't harm you to know more about us. And I'll try to keep it as short as possible by editing out unnecessary scenes.

So, have I captured your interests? No? Well, do skip this chapter then. I dare you.

-_Taniyama Mai, The Journal's Reader-Threatening-Should-Anyone-Read-This Session_

_ xx-xx-xxxx_

~.*.~

_-rry…_

_…sorry…_

_ I'm sorry…!_

_ "!"_

_ —ake care of—_

In all actuality, this particular April morning began dreadfully for Taniyama Mai.

Her back was sore and her shoulders heavy from the restless sleep she had; the raging headache that kept hammering her eyeballs was just an added bonus. To think that all began with a dream—or was it a nightmare?—that she couldn't even remember.

Mai sighed, silently grateful for the fact that her schedule today wouldn't be too demanding. It was, after all, only the second week of school—a pleasant time when the teachers are still busy with introductions and new routines.

She stopped in her tracks and gazed ahead. The sun greeted her gently with its rays as they slipped past through the dainty white cherry blossom petals. Both rows of the magnificent trees guided Mai to her new school. The fine weather did a number on her sulky mood, and before she knew it she was strutting confidently towards the building in front of her, headache momentarily forgotten and body pumped with renewed vigor.

Really, when was the last time she enjoyed the scenery around here? Which was a rephrase of the question: _When was the last time she wasn't late?_ So she fully intended on enjoying this day; why waste a perfect morning, right? At this pace, she might even arrive _early_ to school. The thought of Keiko and Michiru's surprised expressions when they realize that she arrived earlier than they did left her grinning even wider—

—until the old school building made an appearance on her peripheral vision.

Her body released an involuntary shiver, recalling the ghost stories from the previous evening all too well. Surely they won't show up in broad daylight? She felt pinpricks on her limbs and the back of her neck, soon followed by the butterflies in her stomach.

_Oh, _how _well _she knew this feeling—that particular one that never failed to invite trouble afterwards. After 15 years of her life and the numerous troubles as consequences of her reckless acts, she was sure it would be the death of her one day. Most people call it "curiosity." To Mai, there was no difference between that and "death trap." Still, she responded to the strange pull and found herself walking steadily to the front doors of the dusty, old building.

And that was how she got into this mess in the first place.

~.*.~

Remember me telling you about editing scenes? This is one of them.

I'm sure many of you would delight in an in-depth description of my embarrassment as I accidentally broke a camera and an assistant in one fell swoop, but I have decided that I will not give you readers that privilege, as I will soon reveal that I have always been-

Oops—almost spoiled it. I should stop now before my big mouth (hand?) ruins everything.

-_Taniyama Mai, The Journal's Cut #1_

_ xx-xx-xxxx_

~.*.~

Yesterday was the first time Eugene felt alive in _ages_. The irony was not lost on him; he was…dead…through and through, and he had come to accept that a long time ago. Yet all hope was not lost. If his father and idiot-of-a-brother's rambling about ghosts could be proven useful, then it would be now, because here he was trying _desperately _to just _communicate _with someone to no avail.

_Until yesterday. _

The telepathic link Noll and he shared their entire lives was severed due to his predicament, and, hard as he had tried to find his other half, he was not able to. That left him more frustrated—and bored—than he had ever been. But _yesterday _he felt someone literally _beckoning _him to possess her. Noll would have said that they were on the same wavelength and thus were able to establish some form of odd, psychic connection with each other; Gene was more attuned to her than he was to _Noll. _And all this time, he thought that if he died there was no doubt that he would be able to contact Noll, and vice-versa.

Not that he was hoping to test that theory so soon.

Lucky for him, this girl seemed to have _some—_however _miniscule_—tie to Noll. Sadly, the girl was not the slightest bit aware of her own psychic powers.

But that could be quickly remedied.

~.*.~

Currently, _Shibuya-san _(note the disdain) was rambling (not that Mai was not curious) about the abundance of information he had managed to gather about incidents related to the old school building (despite the fact that the request had only been made a week ago) as she was forced to carry several parts of a shelf and a heavy, white _thing_.

"…and the runaway truck last year-" _Creak. _Mai stopped (of course, _Shibuya-san _was too busy in his own world too notice) to look at the particularly fragile spot she was standing on, and proceeded to look up. Curiosity can be a strange thing, but this time it led her to a whirlwind of emotion as she stared at the ceiling: sadness, regret, longing, pity…

_Who knows, this might even be the spot where the teacher hung himself. _

And on that note, she extricated herself from her overactive imagination and decided that listening to _Shibuya-san_ would be a lot better—and safer for her mental peace.

~.*.~

Gene laughed.

Apparently, his barely-received message in her barely-remembered dream might have been one of the incentives for her idea of "Naru." He was imagining the shock his brother would sooner or later—preferably sooner—go through once he hears that nickname uttered by her, as a version of his heavily-accented pet name. Taniyama-san and he could have been best friends under very different circumstances; he's willing to bet whatever the underworld currency was that both would have tons of fun teasing his younger twin.

_Still, I really do hope you take care of Noll, _he thought before he felt another dream swamp her yet again.

~.*.~

_I'm sorry Mayumi-chan… Papa's sorry…!_

Of course she immediately proved herself wrong the next morning when she woke up with a jolt and her dominant arm outstretched before her. Whatever "mental peace" she had found yesterday was gone. She gulped, trying to rid her throat of the bile that was threatening to come up and to momentarily stop her ridiculous panting—

—due to a dream she didn't have a clue about.

_Must be the nerves, _she internally grunted. Being exposed to a supposedly haunted building for a great amount of time was _not _working to her favor, even though Naru-chan (_Yes, _she thought, _that works better in my mind_) had dispelled some of the nasty rumors circulating through school, several people have actually _died_ in its vicinity—two of them being a kidnapped young girl and a neurotic, suicidal teacher.

She shuddered just at the thought of it—before realizing that the sun is energetically sending its rays through her blinds, and stole a brief glanced at the clock. Then she shuddered for a whole other reason.

"_I'm late!_"

~.*.~

Of course, the moment she realized that she might have broken her personal hygiene record was also the moment she looked at the calendar and realized it was a Saturday, but she was grateful for being jittery that morning because, frankly, she did not remember that she was supposed to meet Naru-chan today (as well).

She found him in the back of the van, again busy with something she didn't understand, and probably never would. Soon enough, the principal and some weird-looking strangers found _them, _which quickly resulted in confidence-boosted introductions and some feisty tongue-lashes from all counterparts but the confused looking principal, the only foreigner in the group whose last name she found was impossible to pronounce, and Mai herself (who, being the only sensible person in the group, really _did_ try her best to break up the situation, but only resulted in accidentally calling Naru-chan _"Naru-chan,_" which made his mood even fouler to a certain degree).

_Jeez_, Mai had never thought that people could be so rude upon first meeting each other. Kuroda-san's sudden appearance (and disappearance) made matters worse; really, the only highlight of the day was the Australian's unexpected Kansai dialect.

So, with an inward sigh after hearing the introduction of an (apparently) famous and flirty medium (whom she considered should be publicized as _famously flirty_), she thought that she was more useful when she kept her words_ in her mind_.

It lasted an hour.

~.*.~

Matsuzaki-san's Shinto ritual did not change anything. Mai stared blankly at the ambulance that was slowly driving away from them; the principal and his assistant had been hurt when the glass of the front doors shattered inwards.

The miko herself was miraculously unscathed.

Naru-chan, John, the haka-shishou (Eh? Is that right?), and Mai herself headed back to a room Naru-chan called "base" (and yes, he used the English word for it; what a show-off). They heard the heated debate long before they reached it, and she felt as if another ton was added to her already-slumped shoulders the moment she stepped into the room. She identified it as _uselessness _and _guilt. _After all, she was the one who Keiko and Michiru to stay after school for a round of story telling, and now she was the one who could not do anything.

_ If only I had spiritual powers too…_ _I wish I could do something about the ghosts I summoned…Eh?_ Mai, upon lifting her head up to properly face the monitors, noticed that something was _wrong _with one of the scenes, and quickly racked her mind to see which one.

_I was the one who placed half of the cameras yesterday, _her eyes shot right and left, _even if I don't have any otherworldly powers, I can at least do this—found it! _

"…There wasn't a chair in the middle of this classroom before." She felt her heart flutter with pride and excitement as she said that. _But what if no one believes me?_

"I remember, I _swear_," she added desperately, furrowing her eyebrows as an added incentive and directing her gaze right at Naru's, which he averted before he started asking questions to the other members of the group. She released the breath she didn't know she held and semi-consciously noted that a significant amount of weight was lifted from her shoulders.

The weight came back with a vengeance the moment she saw the exact reason _why _there was a chair there. After that, it seemed like bad things kept on happening one after the other: Hara-san falling off the second story, John's almost-fatal incident with the ceiling, Bou-san's failed exorcism, Naru's disappearance (and the hollowness it left her feeling), and, well, her being squashed by the shoe shelf.

_The _warm _shoe shelf, _she reminded herself, and was baffled for a moment. _A shoe shelf just _squashed _me. _The realization itself was enough to force her to sit upright right away, if not for a gentle, warm hand that was placed on her forehead before she managed to do so. _Who…? _Her eyes fluttered open.

"Naru—"

~.*.~

Gene's heart would have skipped a beat if it was still beating at that moment. _Of course _Taniyama-san would call him "Naru." _What in the world_ did he _expect_? Her calling out "_Gene_" with an open embrace? Noll wasn't the type of sibling who would boast about his family either; in fact, Gene was sure Noll had not mentioned his existence, or ex-existence, at all.

He mentally berated himself. Right now, he wasn't here to feel sorry for himself; he was here to block out any other nasty dreams that were bound to appear with her being so close to the original suicide location. But the earlier shock made enough impact to leave him speechless, so he just gave her a smile of reassurance.

"—you're back? I'm glad." Her tone was so soft, barely audible, and betrayed her exhaustion more than she probably thought. "Oh!" She bolted upright, startling him yet again.

"Uhh…It looks like a poltergeist after all…" She stopped, wincing as she held her tender head. Taniyama-san seemed as if she was about to say more, so he quickly intervened.

"You should get some rest." He frowned and slowly helped the girl lie down once again. She was overworked by both twins on both worlds—how she could keep up with all this was beyond him, but he was more than grateful for that.

"Why are you being so nice?" Gene smiled. _Because I'm not Noll_, he wanted to reply, but bit his tongue and smiled instead. "I wish you'd always smile like that."

That sentence hit Gene more than it should have. Noll had never been the type of person who wore his heart on his sleeve, but the fact that now, even beyond the grave, Gene had done yet another thing to prevent him from smiling openly was eating him inside.

"…I wouldn't smile if I were him either, Taniyama-san."

~.*.~

Naru wasn't there.

_Of course _he wasn't. That was clearly a dream. What? Did she expect that Naru would be the one who swept her off her feet (even if she was technically _already _off her feet, what with being crushed by the shoe shelf and all) and hold her hand until she woke up?

_Fat chance, _she bitterly grumbled. Even after knowing him for only four days, Mai was more than aware that it would take a miracle of miracles for him to perform such an act. _Also, Naru wouldn't smile like that._ But what was she doing here pitying herself? Snap out of it, Mai!

The high-school girl averted her attention from the narcissist and her throbbing headache to bask in the warm glow she felt when she first opened her eyes. Everyone (except Naru) waited until she was conscious; they even looked worried! She felt like giggling.

Not for the first time, John ended (or started? It _was _four in the morning, after all) their short-lived conversation with eruptive laughter—by saying that Naru was probably making _wara ningyo_ to hammer with nails later. You know, to relieve stress.

~.*.~

For once, she arrived at school on time. Her complete lack of sleep after going back home might have been one of the factors as to why she was early, but she hadn't had the blessing of having an undisturbed sleep lately. So, when Naru did that…that…_thing _with the light, she emerged from it with twice the fatigue she began with, but double the will of interrogating Naru.

Who promptly dismissed her by saying that she was more than willing to become stupid.

_Jerk._ But she couldn't deny the fluttering of her heart when he asked her whether she was hurt (more like stating it).

…_Eh? Flutter? Dream? Smile? That means…that means!_

A shrill "EEEEHHH!?" echoed throughout the school.

~.*.~

Once she regained her composure, she searched for Naru near the old school building, and spotted him sitting in the van.

It turned out that she hadn't regained her composure yet, but she tried her hardest to lock everything in a vault for several minutes to inform him of the warm shoe shelf.

"You remember well." She mentally imagined herself being flung over by the force of the opening vault door, and blushed. That was the second compliment in one minute!

Thankfully, before she made a fool of herself right after being complimented, John arrived. And Naru's mood switched completely into business mode.

~.*.~

_Ah, so all those sweet, saccharine words, _Mai thought with a smile, _was to _persuade_ me into working even more!?_ She hammered particularly violently (John would have said that she hammered all nails _equally_ violently, but of course he wouldn't say that out loud; bless his good heart) on a nail, resulting in bending it, and felt the foreigner inch away from her with fear. Naru didn't seem slightly bothered by the noise (which irked her even more—annoying him _was _her intention, after all).

_This is grunt work! _She mentally complained as she hammered the last of the plywood into place and signed everything. _Just as I thought better of you, you had to go and ruin it for me. Way to go, Naru-chan._

_ Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow! I want answers now! _The teenage girl fumed, partly wondering _when _exactly she would start getting straightforward answers from the mystery that was Naru.

~.*.~

_Tomorrow _really couldn't have come soon enough, especially after another bout of night filled with awful dreams _she just couldn't seem to remember. _Classes wouldn't even provide the distraction that she hoped they would, and classes on Tuesdays lasted until after dusk, so she was bound to wait _the whole day _just to see the answer.

Taniyama Mai was _not _a patient person. So, she had decided to simply come _earlier_, now that sleep seemed to elude her swiftly at the times she was _supposed _to sleep_._ Thankfully, the others had the same idea and decided to inform Naruof this. He agreed.

_Come to think of it, I haven't had a good night's sleep ever since I met Naru. _That thought led her to a place she dared not venture anymore—last time, the school's advisor raced to her crouching form near the school's entrance and asked her what was wrong. Mai didn't want to lie; more specifically, Mai did not possess the ability to lie. At all. Years of her mother's strict manner lessons, scolding, and finally _tears_ led Mai to think that she should not lie ever again.

It took something as extraordinary as the evidence of a poltergeist and the identity of the perpetrator to take Mai's mind off of her mother that day. Naru's longwinded explanation helped as well, because she usually understood only half of what he said and resorted to her having to actually pay attentionto what he was talking about. But the thought of Kuroda-san led her straight back to lying, which in turn led back to her mother.

_If okaa-san were never that strict to me, I probably would be somewhat similar to Kuroda-san… _It was not Kuroda-san's fault that the lessons that were so readily offered to Mai by her own mother might not have been available to Kuroda-san. Her school and its staffs were generous to people in need—who's to say that what happened to her hadn't happened to Kuroda-san?

_Lesson learned, _she mentally noted as she dozed off in class while staring at the old school building and contentedly, if not a little bit sadly, reminisced their short time together. Hara-san, Ayako, Bou-san, John, Assistant-san (she forgot his name), Naru… She honestly couldn't deny that being together with them was…_fun_…despite the circumstance that united them. But after a week full of rowdiness, laughter, heated banter, insults, worry, and other sorts of jumbled up feelings she couldn't pin point, she also couldn't help but feel a bit…lonely. Particularly after another dismissal from Naru in favor of school. She furrowed her eyebrows as she replayed that moment again and again in her head. She should have walked more elegantly rather than gracefully stomping back to school, even if the latter would make a more lasting impression.

_Really, that guy… He needs to learn how to enjoy life. _

A couple of days went by as usual—except for the fact that Kuroda-san became famous overnight. Everybody talked about how a part of the school building suddenly collapsed into shambles, with seemingly no apparent reason. Mai just felt like avoiding the commotion in case Kuroda-san asked her opinion or statement in anything that _hadn't actually happened. _Mai wasn't jealous over Kuroda-san's newly-gained popularity; she just didn't feel like ruining it with her lack of ability to lie. So there she was, sitting near the window with Keiko and Michiru to accompany her. She sighed.

"Mai, why didn't you ask Shibuya-san for his address? And you don't even have his phone number…" Mai was not in the mood to be reminded of Naru, but both of her best friends could not seem to leave the matter be. When an announcement was made regarding a phone call for her, she bolted right out of her classroom.

"…Hello?" She twisted the cord with her free hand with a bored expression on her face. Probably it would be a representative from a company saying that she was overdue on certain, if not all, bills. She really did not expect the person from the other line to be—

"—Naru!"

And the rest is history.

~.*.~

Deemed it as important yet? No? Well, then, you just wasted however-long-it-took-you-to read-this. I even _specifically _wrote that you were allowed to skip this entry. Unless, of course, you managed to take possession of this journal before I've finished the next entry, which is highly unlikely (…or not).

I might have answered some of your lingering questions, but I may have added to the list of unanswered ones as well.

And if you were wondering why Gene is included in this diary (oops, I meant _journal_, of course) entry, it was because he was under the impression that he wanted you to know the missing pieces. _I _would have left you scratching your heads.

But Gene is too nice to do that.

Anyway, the little snippets of dreams I couldn't remember interested even me, so I did some research and found out a few things.

Remember the neurotic teacher? And the young girl who was kidnapped and left to die?

Well, their relationship was father and daughter.

Having been informed of this terrible news, the teacher…ended up developing a serious mental disorder and decided to end his life once and for all. He tied the rope on a post near the window.

Guess which one it was.

-_Taniyama Mai, The Second Entry's Ending_

_ xx-xx-xxxx_


End file.
